Lord Commander of the Adeptus Custodes, Valdor, still wanted to persuade him otherwise, but the Emperor's gaze had already told him that this battle was inevitable.
"But, Emperor, this fight will be more than Holy Terra can endure. If you and Axis truly engage, the entire planet will be destroyed by the scale of your battle," Valdor said.
This was no exaggeration.
The Emperor himself possessed the strength to crush a star with his bare hands, and from the battle footage sent back from the frontlines, Axis could just as easily annihilate a planet.
If the two of them fought without restraint, Holy Terra would certainly not withstand it.
Indeed, no planet could.
It was exactly as Valdor said.
If he and Axis fought at full strength, the destruction would be beyond anything humanity could bear.
"Then we will choose another place to fight," the Emperor replied.
"Lord Emperor, if we are to find a star system where you both can fight freely, it must be a dead system, uninhabited. Even if we left now aboard a ship, it would take months to reach such a place," Valdor explained.
It was not as simple as wanting to fight and doing so immediately.
"No matter. We can control our strength. We can find an uninhabited planet within the Solar System. I recall that Saturn and Jupiter still have many barren moons," Axis said.
This battle could no longer be avoided, and he could hardly wait.
"No need. I know of a place perfectly suited for a duel between myself and Axis, where we can unleash our full power," the Emperor said.
At those words, Valdor's eyes widened in disbelief. "Lord Emperor! Surely you do not mean…?" As the Lord Commander of the Custodes, he knew well the secret beneath the Imperial Palace of Holy Terra.
There, the Emperor was using an ancient technological construct, the Golden Throne, to carve a human-controlled path through the Webway and link it to the Eldar Empire's existing network.
The Golden Throne had been discovered by the Emperor in one of the desserts of Asia, of Holy Terra, during the Unification Wars. At first, it was thought to be a relic of the Dark Age of Technology, but later it was found that the humans of that era had merely made minor adjustments to it.
Its core was far older, a relic from sixty million years ago, created by an ancient civilization now named the Old Ones, designed to open passages through the Webway.
After acquiring it, the Emperor had installed some of his own technological discoveries, further improving the Golden Throne.
The Golden Throne could greatly amplify psychic power and control the Webway. It was, in a sense, the future of mankind.
The "safe" dueling ground the Emperor spoke of could only be the Webway itself.
But this was one of Holy Terra's deepest secrets, unknown even to the Primarchs.
In the entire palace, only the Custodes, the Emperor himself, certain top human Adeptus Mechanicus, and Malcador the Sigillite knew of it.
So what right did this man named Axis have to know such a thing?
The Emperor did not need to cultivate a successor; he was a Perpetual, there was no such need.
"Do you question my decision, Valdor?" The Emperor's voice carried its own weight without anger.
Valdor, meeting the Emperor's gaze, could not help but kneel. The Emperor's command was absolute; if this was his will, Valdor had nothing more to say.
"Axis, Lion El'Jonson, and my daughter Kasha, I will now take you to a place. You must all swear that nothing you see today will be spoken of outside these walls. Even the outcome of the battle between myself and Axis must remain untold. To the outside world, you merely came to meet me, and no duel took place. Do you understand?" the Emperor said.
Axis nodded.
Could it be that the dueling ground the Emperor spoke of was indeed that place?
Kasha, standing to the side, was brimming with excitement.
Her father had finally acknowledged her as his daughter, even declaring it in front of a Primarch. This meant her status would be restored.
"Yes, Father!" she replied.
Lion El'Jonson's expression changed drastically.
He turned to Kasha with disbelief, as if trying to confirm what he had just heard his father say.
His Daughter? The Emperor had a daughter—meaning they had a sister.
No… perhaps an elder sister? Judging by Kasha's age, she should be older than them. And she was not a Primarch, which meant she was the Emperor's true offspring, his actual child.
The Emperor gave a small nod, then led the group deeper into the Imperial Palace, until they stood before a massive golden throne.
It was a colossal construct of gold, adorned with ancient components and technological mechanisms, radiating an air of age-old mystery.
"Do you see this?" the Emperor said, "This is the Golden Throne. Many of its outer systems were crafted during humanity's Dark Age of Technology, but its core belongs to a far more ancient civilization. I have even found Eldar runic inscriptions upon it, which means that before humanity claimed it, the Eldar themselves had safeguarded it for a time." He rested a hand on Kasha's shoulder as he spoke.
[A/n: This was common knowledge among the Custodes; otherwise, in The Carrion Throne novel, a Rogue Trader would never have been sent to Commorragh to find a Dark Eldar Haemonculus to help repair the Golden Throne.]
In that moment, he seemed once more like a gentle father.
No one truly knew the Emperor's real nature. He could become whatever one most wished to see. Before Axis, he could be a warrior. Before Kasha, he could be a compassionate father.
Before the Primarchs, he had yet another face.
"This is an extremely advanced device. It can control the Webway, carve new passages, and amplify psychic power. But unless your psychic mastery reaches a certain threshold, you cannot sit upon it. Otherwise, it will kill you. Even for those who can, operating it brings tremendous agony. In the entire Imperium, only two people can safely sit here and command the Golden Throne," the Emperor explained.
Though the Emperor knew that at least half of his Primarchs would one day betray him, he was certain that Lion El'Jonson never would.
The Lion was also discreet; he would never speak of what he saw today.
As for Axis and Kasha, one was his future son-in-law, the other his daughter, and he'd observed them long enough know that they were worthy of his trust..
If the Throne could be shown to Adeptus Mechanicus and the Custodes, there was no reason not to show it to his own kin.
"Father, the two people you mean… are you and Magnus, correct?" Kasha asked.
Before meeting Magnus, she had thought herself and Malcador the Sigillite to be the most powerful psykers in the Imperium.
But upon meeting him, she realized that Magnus's psychic power was not far behind her father's own.
"Yes," the Emperor replied. "This involves certain plans of mine that I cannot reveal to you yet. All you need to know is that I have opened an ancient route, one between the Warp and realspace. It is a completely self-contained dimension, where Axis and I can fight."
Axis felt a twinge of unease.
So it really was the Webway realm carved open by the Golden Throne.
Old man Golden Corn!! are you sure this is safe?
Fighting inside your newly-made Webway? That's dangerous.
The Emperor's Webway was fragile, one stray psychic call from magnus could shatter it.
If they fought here, the place would be torn apart. And if it came to that, would the Emperor actually be forced to sit upon the Throne after this battle? That would make Axis no different from Horus.
"Is it safe for you to fight there? Won't it damage the place?" Axis asked.
"What are you thinking? The Webway I've carved is still unstable, it cannot withstand our full strength. If either of us releases too much power, it will collapse. And the consequences of that are beyond imagining.
"We will use my Webway route to reach the ancient Eldar Webway instead. Fighting there will not endanger Holy Terra. Travel through the Webway is extremely fast; within minutes, we can reach places hundreds or even thousands of light-years away," the Emperor said.
Of course, they could not battle among the network of human-built Webway.
If that fragile network shattered and connected to the Warp, it would be a catastrophe as endless daemons would flood Holy Terra.
Axis grinned, golden ki erupting like a volcanic blast.
The marble tiles beneath his feet cracked, and the entire throne hall trembled beneath the force of his aura.
"Good. Then come, show me the strength of the Master of Mankind."
"Can you be anymore impatient?" the Emperor reprimanded and axis reigned in his aura, what did he do?
"Follow me. This time, I will allow Lion El'Jonson, my daughter Kasha, and you, Valdor, to watch. All others will remain here in the Imperial Palace," the Emperor commanded.
The duel would be conducted in secret.
Holding it within the Webway was intentional as it shielded them from the eyes of the Chaos Gods.
Everyone nodded.
They followed the Emperor to the base of the Golden Throne, where they entered a strange realm.
"Stay with me," the Emperor warned. "Do not stray, or you may be lost here forever, perhaps for millennia."
Axis and the others nodded, following the Emperor into the radiant passage.
The Emperor's body radiated a golden psychic field, shielding them as he led the way forward.
.
.
.
We're still 40+ powerstones short of bonus chapter! Have a great day/night!